


i'll follow you anyway (i'd rather you walk beside me)

by shortitude



Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV)
Genre: F/M, HEY ISN'T IT NICE HOW TRIP DIDN'T DIE???
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-07-10
Updated: 2016-07-10
Packaged: 2018-07-22 17:43:49
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,102
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7448233
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/shortitude/pseuds/shortitude
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Three people go into that cave, three come out.</p>
            </blockquote>





	i'll follow you anyway (i'd rather you walk beside me)

**Author's Note:**

> For **notcaycepollard** : BAM, daisy/trip sweetness. You probably weren't asking for s1-s3 feels and Daisy angst, and I was definitely thinking of just writing about them baking something together, but this demanded to happen instead.

She doesn’t think with a cool head when she moves her belongings onto the Bus. All she can think is that every second she spends surrounded by people, she is putting them at risk, and it’s better like this. She is used to doing things on her own, she’s used to _being_ on her own, and she expects most of them to silently approve of this, to sleep better at night knowing the earthquake-y menace is no longer sleeping next bunk over. 

What she doesn’t expect is to have company on the first night on the Bus. 

“What, like I wouldn’t follow?” Trip jokes, dumping his sleeping bag and backpack on the floor of the vibranium-walled cell that is now her room. 

No, of course he would follow, she doesn’t know why this surprises her. He has followed her into the cave, nearly followed her at the expense of his own life -- she never would’ve forgiven herself, but she can’t forgive herself now, either, because he’s changed because of her too -- of course Trip would do this. 

“You should know better, of all people,” she murmurs, and gets a little choked up when he steps closer and pulls her into a hug. Just like that, not a hint of fear in him; he’d been there when she’d admitted to needing one, separated by the walls of their containment rooms and looking at her like he would’ve gladly walked through them if he could, just to deliver. He must’ve remembered, might have been holding back on it until she looked a little less tense, or until she shook things a little less, except he hugs her and she’s the one who shakes again. “I should be alone,” Skye whispers, burying her face into the fabric of his shirt because he smells comforting and nice, and she’s weak, weak, weak. 

“I know,” he says against the top of her head, rubbing her back. “But you don’t have to.” 

\--

She has so many reasons to be mad, when she comes to and finds herself in a holding cell with her powers restrained: her mother's betrayal, Raina's murder, the realization that everything that happened with Agent Gonzales could have happened literally anyone SHIELD sent to talk to her mother, because she was long gone. But no, no, what she latches onto is the fact that of the two people who break her out of the cell, one looks a lot worse for wear.

"We have to stop meeting like this," Trip says, as Mack gets the lock to her cell. 

"You - you have to stop following me into danger, you idiot," she breathes out, just a little livid. To her credit, she did watch him get taken out by one of her mother's lackeys just before they knocked her out and she woke up here. To her credit, she keeps taking each time Trip is in danger as a very personal and traumatic thing, because of reasons. 

"Hey, inhumanly fast healing, remember?" he jokes, and waves at the bruise that is visibly healing on his cheek as he speaks. She wonders who he fought to get that one. She makes a face at the use of that word. "Too soon?" 

"Can you two not right now?" Mack interrupts, and pulls the door to her cell open. "Come on, Tremors, we need your skills." 

\--

"You wanna be on my team?" she asks him, dropping the folder from Coulson in Trip's lap, then sitting down next to him on the couch. 

"I wasn't aware I'd ever stopped," he answers, before browsing through it. "Caterpillars?"

"The name's subject to change." But as it is, she doesn't say, she likes it just fine. The two of them were caterpillars, in a way; going through a cocoon and a transformation, facing everything that came afterwards together. Of course she would come to him first, he's the only first obvious choice, she would not want anyone else by her side more than she wants (needs) Trip. The fact that she should take his support for granted never crosses her mind, because maybe there's a small part of her that likes hearing the confirmation. 

"You realize this means I'm gonna keep following you into certain danger, though?" 

She hums, and leans her head on his shoulder. "I'd rather you walk by my side instead." 

\--

Losing Charles delivers a hard blow, because she tries so hard - she does not want to accept the inevitability of destiny, she doesn't want to accept that there will be someone who will die and there's nothing she can do about it - but she loses Charles (they lose Charles), and she barely makes it back herself with the beating she takes. 

She skips going to the infirmary, because she can't stand the idea of being told she needs bed rest, and she doesn't want to be in a room full of people she can wonder about in terms of 'who will it be, whose jacket is it?' Isolation feels like the right idea, when her head's a little bit too crowded with ideas and fears, but apparently there's one person who has a different idea. 

Well, it's not as if she was well-hidden in their room, anyway. 

She is grateful beyond words when he doesn't ask her if she wants to talk, but simply steps inside and locks the door behind him, getting in bed next to her and pulling him into his body for a hug. She stops pretending like she's strong and not crying because of losing someone on her watch, and lets herself be spooned and be told that she is still good, still doing good by their people, still a hero. 

"I won't feel much like one," she murmurs eventually, "if I lose one of you..." She turns around in his arms, and lets him hook his leg over the backs of her knees to pull them between his legs, lets him wrap her up in his arms, his impenetrable skin soft against her. "If I lose you..."

"Come on, girl," he whispers against her forehead, and gently gets her to look up at him. His smile is soft, but still sends butterflies down to her stomach, fluttering with the abundance of love she feels for this one person. The fear of losing him really is there now, it's the worst, but she knows that in their line of work it's the sad possibility everyone wakes up to, every day. 

It doesn't improve things, knowing that. 

Trip leaning in to kiss her until she's smiling again, however, does. She'll figure it out -- no, _they_ will.

**Author's Note:**

> #triplivesforever2k16


End file.
